The use of bed soaker pads has long been known in the art. Such pads often called soaker pads are commonly placed on beds to absorb exudates such as urine, blood and other body fluids that are exuded by bed patients. Such pads may also be placed onto chairs used by incontinent persons or into the clothing used by incontinent persons.
Presently there are several types of pads available for this purpose. A common type of pad is formed from cloth that is washed and reused after it has been soiled. The cloth pads are relatively expensive and due to staining and deterioration do not have a particularly long life. Pads, in use, are often cut to size for specific uses or become so heavily soiled that they must be discarded. The cloth soaker pads may or may not be provided with a rubber backing. The pads both with and without a rubber backing are expensive, particularly when an entire hospital or nursing home must be provided with a multiplicity of pads for each patient in order to provide for laundering of the pads.
Disposable pads for use as soaker pads for protection of beds and chairs are also known. These pads are of several types. One type is formed with an impermeable polymer covering on one surface, divellicated wood fibers as fluff or wadding over the impermeable backing, and a permeable cover of a carded web material or tissue on the side exposed to moisture. These pads have the disadvantage that they are thin and not very absorptive. Further, if they are torn, fluff is released into the environment, causing a housekeeping problem. The loose fluff can be a health hazard, causing cross infection as it provides a mechanism of transport for bacteria, viruses and germs carried from one patient's bed or room to another. Another type of pad is similar to the above-described pad, except that the fluff of wood pulp is held together with adhesive. A third type uses creped tissue sheets as absorbent. The second and third types are expensive and not reusable. A fourth type of pad is formed with a polymer backing that has adhered thereto a coform absorbent structure that is overlaid with a spunbonded permeable member on the side exposed to moisture. Coform is an air-formed blend of polypropylene and divellicated wood fibers. This pad also is not readily washable, as the adhesives holding the coform to the polymer are not especially heat-resistant during drying, and further, the wood fibers leave the coform during washing and form hardened horny balls or nits beneath the permeable cover.
There remains a need for a soaker pad that will be washable, low in cost, and effective. There is particularly a need for such a pad that will inhibit rapid sideways surface transfer of moisture such that moisture will stay within the center target portion of the pad rather than running to and off of one edge causing soiling and staining of the bed linens.